Cranston Calvert Elementary School15 Cranston Avenue Newport, RI 02840847-1660FAX: 847-1665 Principal: Jennifer Booth

Your Name

Linda Reyes

Introduction

Cranston Calvert Elementary School is located in Newport, Rhode Island. This school challenges all students, in collaboration with parents, teachers, and the communities, to implement their best knowledge. The goal is to make the students responsible learners in order to achieve high academic standards while meeting their individual needs in a positive and safe environment. The public school system of Newport consist of 7 schools. The Newport Public School web page states that their overall mission statement is, "for students, families and communities to offer partnership within each other to provide a challenging education with academic strictness and appropriate supports so that each student will get a hold of the knowledge, skills, and character essential to productive citizenship, healthy choices, lifelong learning, and the ability to make a meaningful contribution to our global society" (home page). Last semester I did a research paper titled Residential Patterns and Inequality in Public Education, where i researched the public educational systems of a middle-upper class city vs a predominately working class city. I used Cranston and Providence to compare the inequality of public education. In this context statement I will incorperate my findings from the Newport Public School system and Cranston-Calvert Elementary vs my results of Residential Patterns and Inequality in Public Education focusing on why it is that residential patterns affect the learning community.
I became interested in reading and learning more about Cranston Calvert because my niece, Jashlee Wray attends the elementary school and loves it. My big sister Neyda, has talked to me about Cranston Calvert Elementary, she comments that the school is very helpful in terms of, good programs, keeping her involved and working on exceeding Jashlee's best learning efficiency. In this context statement i will be addressing community background about the city of Newport and Cranston Calvert Elementary, which will specify information about populations and income. The district summary will acknowledge test scores, educational performances, and the school district in general. School analysis will assure enrollment, teachers, and special programs that the elementary provides for the students. I will briefly end the statement with a summary and overall opinions and findings. I hope to inform the reader about the relationship between residential patterns and the quality of public education.

Community Background

The city of Newport is known for its beautiful mansions and town itself, so people automatically consider it high class. This city is mostly populated by whites, statistics of 2005-2009 show that the community's population was 90.5% white citizens (US Census website). In contrast to the whole state of Rhode Island, which only shows that 82.8% of the population consist of white race/ethnicity. The lowest percentage racial group found in Newport is Asian with only 1.1%. Data in the website of the US Census also illustrates the following information from the 2005-2009 census bureau:

	Newport	Rhode Island
Median household Income	$56,802	$55,569
Median family income	$78,197	$71,039
Families below poverty	10.6%	11.6%
High school Graduation	91.9%	83.4%

This information shows that the city of Newport is in-fact mostly wealthy. In my Residential Patterns and Inequality in Public Education paper I discovered that higher class cities have higher standards when it comes to public education. I can see that, thus far Cranston Calvert is a great elementary school that follows their expertise statement because the high school graduation percent is larger than the states result as you can see on the table above. It shows me that children start off in the right path to continue great academic success through out their future. This notes that more academic attention is given to the students in Newport, it being predominately high class confirms that large income families have better access to educational resources to help their children succeed. In the city of Providence where most of the population consist of a predominately working class, the students only receive optional academic resources. These optional resources are only taken advantage of by those who are serious about their education, but because most students in poverty don't have a role model; they don't pay attention to the importance of an education. The table above also shows that the median household income is $56,802, leaving 10.6% of the families in Newport below the poverty level. The food stamp program participation helped 1,202 families in 2009 and medical service assisted 1,908.
The supper superintendent, Dr. John H. Ambrogi, of the Newport Public School system grants a lot of educational resources for minority families to help their children receive a good education like the high class children.

District Summary

Cranston Calvert elementary is a public school in the Newport district under Principal Jennifer Booth. This district consist of the following categories: performance, funding, demographics, accountability, spending, and assessments. The goal for the upcoming years between 2010-2015 is to transform education in Rhode Island to, (1) ensure educator excellence, (2) accelerate all schools towards greatness, (3) establish world-class standards and assessments, (4) develop user-friendly data systems, and finally (5) invest resources wisely. To analyze student achievement, the district develops four main test assessments.

• NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) - administered in certain grades for public educational funding.
• SAT Exams - College admission test
• AP Exams - Advanced Placement courses and exams to receive credit for in higher education.
• DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment)

The scores to these assessments establish the proficiency and/or level of education where the students learning ability really stands. Cranston Calvert student are required to take the NECAP assessment only, and that is in grades three and four. The 2010-2011 district results of the NECAP assessment shows that 50% of the students in 3rd grade math level was proficient and 63% were proficient in reading (Info works). The 4th Grade reading scored 66% proficient in the district of Newport. The 4th grade math section had 52% succeeded. In Cranston Calvert elementary, the students are not required to take any of the other assements because they are for Higher educational levels. Below the tables compare the 2010-2011 district and state results from all of the grades required to take the assessment.

District Results

Grade	Math	Reading	Writing
3rd	50%	63%	-
4th	52%	66%	-
5th	44%	63%	44%
6th	48%	64%	-
7th	45%	54%	-
8th	46%	68%	58%
11th	19%	75%	42%

State Results

Grade	Math	Reading	Writing
3rd	62%	71%	-
4th	63%	68%	-
5th	62%	73%	59%
6th	60%	71%	-
7th	54%	65%	-
8th	54%	74%	61%
11th	33%	76%	51%

School Analysis
While i was researching Cranston Calvert elementary i found their 2010-2011 handbook. I found that there was a parent involvement policy. This policy states that the parents role in their child's education is essential. Also that parents and families need to be supportive toward their child's education. On that note, the elementary will:

• help families establish environments to support children as students
• Provide information and ideas for families about how to help students at home with homework and other curriculum related activities
• provide clear and consistent communication between home and school
• provide reports on children's progress on a regular basis
• include parents in the decision making process
• increase family involvement in all aspects of the school

I find it very convenient that this school involves the parents of all the students in accordance to their education because it helps the students mentally to also stay active and motivated to learn. As a student in the predominately working class, i have to admit that these schools in the "hood" do not try to involve parents as much as they should. In my Residential Patterns and Inequality in Public Education paper I found that non-parent involvement in a child's education arouses the student to learn more about what their peers are involved in (violence and the streets).
Below is a chart of how the elementary categorizes the students by grades:







References
www.NewportPublicSchool.com
US Census. www.Census.gov
Info works. http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/school/cranston-calvert-school

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